Prosecutor General Lazar on 'attempts by certain state powers to viciously deprive Romanian prosecutors of their independence'

The independence of the prosecutors must be defended with "dignity" and "strength", on Thursday night said the Prosecutor General of Romania Augustin Lazar, speaking of "attempts of certain powers of the state to deprive the Romanian prosecutors of their independence on dubious ways, through vicious parliamentary bills and procedures". 

"Between protecting the criminals or the victims, the Prosecutor's Office has made it clear cut its choice for a long time: it will protect the victims, and towards the criminals it will be steady, intransigent and yet even-handed. By doing that, the Public Services Ministry will assume independence it has to benefit according to the Constitution of Romania, as well as the international documents, some of which a part of the domestic law through ratification, in accordance with Art. 11 of Romania's fundamental law. We thus answer all of the question by the public opinion, the attempts of certain state's powers to deprive the Romanian prosecutors of their independence on dubious ways, through vicious parliamentary procedures and bills, or through fraudulent maneuvers engineered in political circles with interests against the criminal justice, that the Public Service Ministry will not abdicate nor from its independence, nor from its steadiness. The independence conferred by the Constitution of Romania is defended with dignity, firmness and through judicial tools provided by the law!" says Lazar, according to a release sent on Thursday to AGERPRES by the Prosecutor's General Office. 

The Prosecutor General reviews the internal and international documents that rule the prosecutors' independence, reminding of the noted political scientist Francis Fukuyama and criticises the bill to amend the laws of Justice. 

"There is a clear connection between the rule of law and the prosecutors' independence. We talk about the prosecutors' independence because it is only by this the grave criminal deeds could be sent to court, meaning the justices have the possibility to decide upon the guilt or innocence of the defendants. To harass the prosecutors, to put them in a defensive state, to threat them with disproportionate legal liabilities against eventual mistakes they did, to assimilate ipso facto a court decision of acquittal of a defendant with a professional guilt, to turn the Prosecutor's Office into a weak link between the Police and the courts, to subdue the prosecutors to control from an executive fully political body, as the Justice Ministry is, headed by a politically appointed Justice minister and with a political agenda means in a nutshell to gravely violate fundamental principles of the rule of law," Lazar says. 

In his opinion, the rule of law is based on the rule of law principle, and yet it implies the idea of moral, ethical, political and judicial responsibility, too. 

According to the Prosecutor General Art. 132 paragraph (1) of the Constitution refers not to any subordination of the prosecutors to any other state authority and under no circumstances to the Justice minister. 

Augustin Lazar says that several international documents speak about the prosecutors' independence, and yet admits that there are constitutional systems across the world where the prosecutors are part of the executive power, "but Romania, as a neo-Latin culture European country is not part of this family of constitutional systems." 

"The real mission of a prosecutor in the society is to act in the service of the criminality victims, considering ahead of all, their rights. And these are human rights, moreover they are rights of the innocent and whose legitimate rights and interests have been aggressed, ruined, mocked of by the criminals. The obligation of the Public Service Ministry to observe the human rights also refers to the persons accused or prosecuted for doing crimes, but only in what regards the assurance of guarantees of a fair trial, the observance of the right to freedom, insomuch as this right justifies its existence in the criminal prosecution stage and trial of the criminal process and least but not last of the presumption of innocence. The rights of the defendants will never be more important than the rights of the victims, on the contrary because otherwise we'd live in a twisted world wherein they who suffer through crime are meant to suffer the humiliation of a criminal investigation and a trial that puts them in inferiority against their aggressor," Lazar asserts. 

"The prosecutors' firmness is a trait specific to their social role, and the society should appreciate the steadiness examples from the prosecutors' offices because this attitude means but intransigence towards the criminals and a higher defence of the criminality victims," Lazar concludes.